Lucina immediately went to her room and locked the door. She sat down on her bed. She was still angry at herself. How could she have made such an accidental slip of the tongue? Even if she inadvertently managed to tell everybody she missed Robin, she absolutely did not have to overreact. Lucina handled the situation extremely poorly. Looking back, she should have just ignored it and just let the children tease her about it. After she tried to deny the allegations, it actually made things worse. The children became more insistent, and she lost her temper. Everybody in the room heard her deny the malicious rumors in a way that definitely made her look guilty. In fact, her actions "proved" to everybody she did have a "crush" on Robin. The worst part about thissituation was also the fact the truth goes way deeper than just having a simple "crush" on the white-haired tactician.
About half an hour later, there was a light knock on the door. Lucina ignored it at first, believing it was one of the children coming back to make fun of her again. However, as the knocking became a full-force pounding that went on nonstop, she finally yelled out, "Go away. Leave me alone! I don't care who you are: I don't want to see you right now."
"Lucina, dear, I know you are embarrassed, but can we talk about this? Besides, you can't lock yourself up in there forever. You also never finished your dinner!" She heard her mother's voice behind the door.
Normally, Lucina would have loved to talk to her mother about her problem and opened the door without hesitation. After all, she was always there to help. However, because Lucina was still angry at herself, she responded, "Yes I can mother. I can stay in my room as long as I want. And you can feed that dinner to Minerva for all I care. I don't want it."
"Lucina, can you at least open the door? I just want to talk to you."
"No, mother. You don't understand. I made a fool of myself. I can't show my face around my friends ever again."
"Lucina, you are being unreasonable right now. Nobody thinks you are a fool. Can you just open the door? I'm your mother, Lucina, I just want to talk. I am not here to make fun of you; I'm not here to kidnap you. I'm just here to talk."
"Can you just leave me alone?"
"Lucina, I am not going to stop bothering you until you open the door and talk to me."
"No mother, I made my demands loud and clear. I am not opening the door. I have to stay in my room because it's that time of the month for me again. I am not feeling well."
"Lucina, you're not fooling anybody with your excuses. You know those 'times of the month' don't exist when you are pregnant!"
"Yes they do!"
"Lucina, you might be able to get away with that excuse with the other girls, but that statement is not going to fly for me. In fact, even if you weren't pregnant, your 'time of the month' is way off schedule. I know, Lucina."
"Still mother, I am not opening the door. Also, stop talking so loudly outside, you never know if Kellam is using his invisible powers to eavesdrop on us."
"Lucina, there is nobody outside. In fact, there is nobody in the hallway besides myself. Nobody is going to hear us! You are being paranoid."
"Just go away, Mother."
"All right Lucina, you leave me no choice. If you don't open the door after I finishing counting to ten, I am going to tell all the children about your secret conversation with Robin. "
Lucina was silent. She was shocked her mother would think about blackmailing her.
"You're bluffing, Mother."
"Just try me. One."
"…"
"Two."
"Mother, you know I have to tell them eventually. It's really not a big deal if you do it right now."
"I agree, but did you forget about the fact you tried to kill Robin? It's not just you are carrying your boyfriend's child, you know. Three."
"…"
"Four."
"…"
"Five."
"Mother, you're blackmailing me."
"Blackmailing you? Yes, that may be true, but you are being a very unreasonable daughter right now. I just want to talk to you, yet you are making it very hard for me to do so. You left me with no choice but to do this. Six."
"…"
"Seven."
"Mother, you can't. You promised you would keep our conversations a secret unless I chose to reveal it."
"I can. And you never gave me conditions for my promise, so I can break it right now because of your disrespect towards your mother right now. Eight."
"…"
"Nine."
"…"
"Ten. All right too late Lucina, I'm going to tell your friends. I hope you have said your blessing to Naga before your friends..."
"Wait, Mother. Stop it, don't do this to me. I'm opening the door. I'll have a stupid talk with you about my behavior at the dinner table."
"Watch your language young lady. I know my future self did not teach you to use such coarse language towards you parents when you were growing up."
"Okay sorry Mother. I'm coming."
Lucina walked over to her bedroom door and unlocked it. She quickly let her mother in her room, before quickly closing and locking it again. She also checked her window to make sure nobody was outside her window trying to listen. After that, she began waving her hands in the air, trying to see if Kellam was hiding somewhere in plain sight that she could not see.
"Lucina. You don't have to be so paranoid. Nobody is going to snoop in on our conversation." Her mother stated.
"No, Mother. How can you say that? I've already made a fool of myself back at the dining table. I can't let the other children think any worse of me. Also Mother, I am very angry at you for blackmailing me. You gave me my promise you would not tell anybody, and yet you would use such information to take advantage of me."
"Lucina, calm down, you are overreacting. Yes, I know I might have been a little harsh on you, and it hurt my heart to have to do that to you. I'm sorry I had to threaten you like that, and I would not have done it had there been another choice. I'll make it up to you somehow in the future. You have my word on it. But Lucina, you should listen to me. I have talked to the other children after you left, and although they all said your reaction was funny, they would have never joked about Robin had you acted like this. Nobody thinks badly of you, Lucina. In fact, they told me they were actually scared because you never lose your temper, and it was their first time seeing you get angry."
"No, mother, I am not overreacting. I can never show my face around the Shepherds and my friends anymore. They probably all hate me for what happened. Besides, I basically just told everybody I have a crush on Robin, didn't I? The truth goes way deeper than that, and it probably won't be long until they figure that out."
"Lucina, you are not thinking about this logically. You may not realize this, but you secrecy with Robin is not as discrete as you would like to believe. The rumors have always existed, but you were just never there to hear them. I have asked the other children about what they knew about my daughter and Robin, and they all told me that you two looked like secret lovers. All you did today was maybe just confirm those suspicions. Whatever the children thought about you from before the war will not be much different than right now."
"What… What do you mean, Mother? Robin and I always met in secret. I never told anybody about this before the war was over. We have not done anything out of norm."
"Maybe, maybe so. But your behavior has always changed whenever you were around Robin. I told you this yesterday, but you two were always sneaking glances at each other during dinnertime. You two always managed to 'accidently' meet up with each other at the most unlikely locations. Noire even told me there were times she caught you sneaking into Robin's tent when she was doing night patrol. They all said they noticed you two were always fighting side by side in battle, and although they like to believe that is because our tactician did this for strategic purposes, most of the children did not believe it. They always talked about how you were always so close with them in the future. You always fought alongside them. However, after coming back from the future, they said you seemed more distant towards them as time went on. You let your boyfriend give orders to the other children, and you fought alongside him more times than any of the other children combined. In fact, after your first time fighting alongside Robin, they all noticed you never left his side. If that wasn't suspicious, I don't know what is."
Lucina thought about what her mother said. She already decided she wasn't going to bother correcting her mother about Robin being her boyfriend because it was no use. Processing the information, her mother had a point. It was true Robin and Lucina always fought side by side. It was probably also true that she did not spend as much time as she had hoped after they were reunited with the Shepherds. After the children joined, Robin gave all the children orders. Lucina never gave orders to them anymore. Lucina simply fought by Robin and followed his command. It was probably the correct decision, as Robin was way more skilled in tactics and warfare than she ever was. Although Robin was weaker in combat, she made up for that with her strong sword skills while Robin used his brain. Robin made every battle seem easy, while Lucina struggled at times to keep the other children alive. In some ways, she was relieved when Robin took over, because she had a huge burden off her back. "I guess that night in Valm Castle was probably one way to pay him back for relieve me this pressure." Lucina chuckled to herself.
"How much… how much… do the other people know?" she managed to weakly speak out.
"Honestly? I would say nothing much. They probably don't even know about anything you told me yesterday or this morning. You pretty much just told everybody you had a crush on Robin, but all the children and the Shepherds suspected it. In fact, your father might have been the only one not to know. I told him before coming here that you were just telling a joke, and your father actually bought my pathetic lie. Sometimes I wonder how naïve he can be as he believes almost everything he hears. After all, had Robin been working for Gangrel when they first found him in the plains… Oh.. I better not think about that. Besides that, as long as you don't tell anyone else, I think that's all they will know."
"But you tried to blackmail me mother! Did you forget about what just happened literally five minutes ago? You threatened to tell them everything unless I talked to you!"
"Lucina, I already told you I was sorry about that. And to tell you the truth, I was bluffing. You called me out on it, but you weren't brave enough to truly follow up on your statement. I never could have told them about Robin. But I had to find a way for you to open the door, and I know you would do so if I just threatened you."
"What… Mother, how could you do this to me? What would you have done next had I not opened to door?"
"I'll be honest Lucina, I was ready to give up. If you weren't going to open the door, I was simply going to walk away and try again tomorrow. And Lucina, I told you I never could have broken your promise. Once again Lucina, it was the last resort."
"Do you really mean it this time Mother? Even if you didn't do it, how can I still trust you?"
"You still hold a grudge to your poor mother even after she apologized? How do you think Robin felt when you tried to kill him but then you stopped? He probably had the same feelings you had right now, but he loved you way too much. He was probably quick to forgive you and forget about that entire incident."
"… I never thought about it like that."
"Well, you can think about it like that for now. Just be like your boyfriend and forgive your mother. I had no malicious intent behind my statements."
Lucina went over and gave a small hug to Sumia. "Oh mother, don't worry, I forgive you. There are worse scenarios that could have happened from that incident. I think I also share part of the blame for this too. Mother, I'm sorry about not opening the door for you earlier. I was too upset at myself."
"Lucina, you don't have to apologize to me. I understood your intentions. However, I guess I also had one of those moments where I was getting impatient and had to be a little harsh just to get you to do something."
Lucina let go of her mother from her hug. Her mother began talking again:
"However, we do need to talk about something. I think you do need to tell your father about your relationship with Robin."
"What do you think I should tell him?"
"Well, you should probably tell him everything."
"EVERYTHING?"
"Yes. He's your father. He deserves to know. Well, you can leave out the part where you tried to kill Robin, but everything else."
"I know he told me he was not going to get mad at me no matter what I did earlier today, but he is definitely going to get mad at me when he find out his 'perfect' daughter had slept with his best friend!"
"Lucina, I told you this this morning. You are letting what other people think get in your way of happiness. Also, having such a huge burden on yourself is not good for your health. You should probably just tell him what you told me yesterday: how much you miss Robin, how you two were secretly in love and how you loved seeing each other behind everybody's back. Your father probably doesn't even know a single thing about this. He might be super skilled at running a country and fighting in wars, but when it comes to social interactions, he is as naïve as a Risen. You might want to be careful breaking the news to him, as I know it will be a lot for him to take in. In fact, if you want, you can probably keep the fact you are pregnant to yourself and see how he reacts before you tell him. If he does get angry at you, maybe hold it off for a week at most. In fact, you should just not tell him and just let him process the fact you two were dating first."
"But, I can't tell him myself. I.. I'm too scared to."
"Lucina, you have been in battles all your life. You cannot tell me that talking to your father is scarier than risking your life on the battlefield."
"Yes, I know Mother, but I have been on so many battlefields in my life that it feels like second nature to me. I never had a parent to talk to, and I am afraid of his reaction."
"How about this Lucina? If you are so worried about talking to your father about this, I will tell him myself. You do not have to even come with me, and I will make sure he will not get mad at you. I know of many ways I can soothe him no matter what ill news I tell him. In fact, I think I was the one that finally snapped him out of his misery after Emmeryn's death. You go and finish your dinner. It's still right there where you left it. I told the servants not to touch it. Just finish the food, and I will personally clean up after you are done."
"That's kind of you mother, but I think I should probably be the one to do this. After all, I was the one who got myself in this situation, I should probably be the one to break the news to him."
"No, Lucina, go eat your dinner. Also, I have told all the kids and the other Shepherds not to make fun of you after what just happened. In the meantime, I will talk to your father about this."
"NO. Mother. Wait. Don't tell him yet."
"Something wrong, dear?"
"We'll do it later after I finish up dinner or tomorrow. Like I said, I was the one responsible. I'll have to set this right."
"Of course dear. Just see me when you want to talk to him today or tomorrow and I'll help you get this over with. Go finish your dinner."
"Okay, that would be great mother. But you… you don't have help me with this. I think I could probably tell him alone."
"Lucina, I told you. We were never there for you in the future, and I want to make things right this time. A small request like this, you don't need to feel bad about asking. In fact, I think you will feel more comfortable when you have someone you trust helping you get through this situation."
Lucina left her room and went back in the dining room to finish her dinner. The dining hall was empty, but her plate of bear meat was still on the table. Although it was cold, she still did not think much of it and ate it down because she was hungry. After all, she has gone through worse periods. Eating cold bear meat could almost be considered a luxury.
After the dinner, she knocked on her mother's room and told her she doesn't plan to tell her father today, but to wait until tomorrow. She walked back into her room, took off her shoes, used the castle's luxurious bathtub for the first time in her life, changed into a short nightgown and laid down on the bed. Try as hard as she could, she found herself suffering from insomnia. Was it because she was afraid of meeting Robin again in her dreams? Was it because she had a bad day? Was it because she would spill more secrets to her mother telepathically in her sleep? Was it because she afraid of her father's reaction? Was it because she didn't know what to do not that the war was over? Lucina was not so sure, and for a long time, all she could do was ponder at these thoughts. It took Lucina a long time after lying down on her bed to finally actually fall asleep.